Help: are human rights made or discovered?

[Albint_Almuslima]

Asalam aleekum,

I have to write an essay answering the following question,

Are human rights made or discovered?

i wrote my opinion in an islamic matter, that they are not made nor discovered that they are given to us by god. the professor than asked me, so how do we know them? basically the professor wants me to answer this question in a way that satisfies all religions if im going to use God as the creator of these rights, without actually only stating Islam, christianity or judiasim.

Im asking people to help me put this essay together and give me some ideas that will persuade the reader that human rights are given to us by god because thats what we muslims believe. but i cant state that islam says that because all religions must be satisfied

Thank you,

salam,

 

[miq1]

Praise be to Allah (The Glorified and Exalted).

The answer is simple. They are conveyed to humans through revelation and prophethood. In response to your post below: Islam is not the only religion that believes in prophets, gurus, "enlightened holy men," humanist philosophers, call it whatever you may, that help to redefine and shape societies opinions.


The Criterion for Right and Wrong:

The Criterion for proper conduct and observance of right and wrong has been established by Allah (The Glorified and Exalted), “The month of Ramadan in which was revealed the Qur’an, a guidance for mankind and clear proofs for the guidance and the Criterion (between right and wrong)…” [2:185]. There has arisen among mankind a group that believes they have better right to formulate via their opinions what is appropriate moral conduct. Amazingly, these individuals claim self-sufficiency from Allah (The Majestic), but have taken as their foundation for right and wrong the revelation and guidance of Allah and have altered it in places in which they feel it does not suit their desires and present circumstances. Their foundation of right and wrong has come from Allah (The Glorified) because these individuals have benefited from either being raised in a land or having had contact with other peoples that have generally accepted the differentiation of right and wrong based upon the monotheist scriptures. One can see the circumstances of the peoples that have never had prior contact with monotheist scriptures. This is best exemplified by the tribes that reserve themselves to living in the jungles of the Amazon or New Guinea. These individuals have never had contact with monotheist teachings. Therefore, it is no surprise that they roam around nude, without covering, because they have no prior knowledge of appropriate covering whilst in public. It also no surprise that some of these individuals engage in cannibalism, devouring the flesh of their deceased family members such as was done by the Kuru tribe of New Guinea. There are also numerous other examples such as the pre-Islamic Arabs of Arabia, engaging in female infanticide. If mankind had been left to itself in order to establish its own Criterion, it is evident that every nation or group of people would come to a different conclusion as to what is appropriate moral conduct. It is also the case that among each group of people, a nation’s perception of good and evil conduct alters, just as time alters. How can anyone rely on such a flimsy criterion, that is ever-changing? What is required is an established Criterion by which every man may be judged justly. This can only be accomplished through the revelation and guidance of Allah (The Glorified and Exalted).

And Allah (The Glorified and Exalted) Knows Best.

 

[Albint_Almuslima]

Praise be to Allah (The Glorified and Exalted).

The answer is simple. They are conveyed to humans through revelation and prophethood.


And Allah (The Glorified and Exalted) Knows Best.

I cant use ISLAM ONLY.....Islam is not the only religion and most people arent muslims, how will i convince them that they are created by god if they dont believe in islam...

 

[al-fajr]

Assalamu'alayki,

What you need to do is look at the moral tradition in other relgions ..take Buddhism for example, they cannot hurt any living creature or something similar to that (I think) ..do research on however many examples that will suffice your essay. What you should remember as you write the essay, (as a muslimah) is that why Islaam is superior to all of those other 'moral traditions'? Because it is the middle way and it enables mankind to co-exist in harmony with not only its own race but with all of creation to the max.

So are human rights made or discovered? Neither, since 'made' implies man-made. Discovered ...? implies something along the lines of after some incident of genocide humans realise 'oops ..thats not the right thing to do after all ' hence, the right for a human to live without fearing death due to race is a newly discovered 'right'. That isn't an intelligent conclusion at all.

A flawed question ..but that is to be expected in these mediocre education systems.

Can't be of anymore help, sorry, such topics aren't my strong point.

 

[ummyasiin]

I cant really place into words what I wanna say, soooo umm okay I live in us...we have what you call the amendments, or the bill of rights, Im not good with social studies soo you may have to google what Im trying to say, but these laws are based of of of "godly" ethics or morals....and I believe every country have them, but if you read them they have things like what is in the 10 commandments just written slightly different, the ppl who wrote them had some form of god inspiration or there wouldnt be laws, life would be un cilvilized, like do you kinda understand what Im struggling to explain???? lol
oh, I jus noticed your from the us aswell, so you know the laws I speaking of....mayb lol.

 

[Albint_Almuslima]

Asalam Aleekum,

Thank you so much for your help everyone...

Thank you for your time and consideration....

salam,

 

[arzafar]

how do we know them?
prophets, holy scriptures.

for eg. from the 10 commandments

thou shall not kill